JOCHEBED SAVES MOSES, AIDS PRINCESS

This was a five-minute radio script my husband and I presented in Connellsville, PA., while he was serving as pastor of a church in that community.

C: Monte, remember the time you told me our daughter Sandy had you wrapped around her little finger? That she had grabbed at your heartstrings?

M: Oh, yes, I do remember.

C: You know, the relationship between fathers and daughters is an age old one.

M: What do you mean?

C: I was reading about Moses the other day. Remember how the Pharoah ordered all the babies under two years old to be killed because there were too many Israelites among the Egyptians?

M: I remember. The Pharoah was afraid of their potential power! It was his daughter, possibly named Meri, who found Moses in the river.

C: Yes. Amram and Jochebed, Moses’ parents, were able to keep him in their home until he was about three months old. He must have been a good child, not prone to crying. But Jochebed had to be a sensitive mother, too, knowing how to care for him so he didn’t cry much. In time, however, it became harder and riskier to hide him. She didn’t want the Egyptians to kill her child. She sensed God had a special mission for him.

M: Jochebed realized she couldn’t keep Moses quiet enough as he became older. The Egyptians were trying all kinds of tricks to locate the infants. It was dangerous to keep Moses hidden much longer, but it would take something creative to save Moses’ life.

C: They came up with an interesting plan, though.

M: They sure did. Who would have thought of making a basket out of grasses, sealing it with pitch and tar, placing baby Moses in it and putting it in the river as a means of saving his life?

C: Do you think that Jochebed knew the Pharoah’s daughter would see the basket and have compassion on the baby?

M: I’m not sure. She knew the princess bathed in the river regularly, and had watched her compassion with others who were sad. She’d also watched the princess hover over other the babies of the other women. And the princess did spot the basket in the grasses at the side of the river and sent a servant to fetch it. Rabbis say Pharoah’s daughter was suffering from leprosy, and that is why she bathed in the river. The Rabbis say when she touched the basket and reached for Moses, she was healed. That would give her pity for the child!

C: Interesting. Scripture claims when the Princess opened the basket Moses cried and she had compassion on him. With her soft heart, how could she help but fall in love with the baby?

M: But keeping the baby posed a real problem for the princess. They didn’t have infant formulas in those days.

C: I know. Nursing mothers known as wet nurses helped new mothers who had problems feeding their babies, but Moses refused to feed from the Egyptian wet nurses. Rabbis comment: Will the mouth that will one day speak for God be filled with non-kosher milk?

M: There could be another explanation. At three months old, having been hidden all that time, Moses knew his mother and wouldn’t feed from another woman.

C: True. Moses older sister, Miriam, had been spying on the Princess, making sure Moses was safe. She approached the Princess, saying she could find a Hebrew woman to nurse Moses. The Princess, probably at her wits end and now helplessly in love with the baby, agreed to Mirian’s suggestion.

M: That’s when Miriam brought Jochebed back into Moses’ life. It must have been a great mother-son reunion, even though the Princess didn’t have a clue what was happening as the hungry Moses responded to his bio-mother’s touch. I’m sure Jochebed was never able to reveal who she was.

C: No, but I wonder if the princess was ever suspicious. Jochebed had the opportunity to hold and cuddle her child, to rock him to sleep as an infant, to see him play and learn through his first years, and to care for him until he was seven years old.

M: That’s when the Princess adopted him.

C: Yes, but during his time with Jochebed she had the opportunity to instill within him his Hebrew heritage and a faith in God. She also knew the Pharoah’s family would provide Moses with a great education. Some critics say he may even have been in line for the throne if he hadn’t returned to his Hebrew people.

M: Do you see God’s hand at work in all this? He gave Moses two mothers, his biological mother and his adoptive mother, who developed his character, his education, his love for God, so that he was able to lead his people, the Israelites, to freedom.

C: Yes, God does perform miracles!